Give Igbo 2023 presidential ticket – Kalu tells APC, PDP, others

Chief Kalu Ogbonnaya has called on political parties in Nigeria to give their 2023 presidential ticket to the South-East.

The Kano-based industrialist spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.

He cited the 1999 election where parties fielded only South-West candidates.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo ran on People’s Democratic Party (PDP), while Olu Falae was the joint candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All People’s Party (APP).

Currently, PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are major platforms.

“Everybody knows that the right thing to do is to allow the South-East to produce the president in 2023, because it is the only zone in the country that has not tasted it”, he said.

“Olusegun Obasanjo became the president after the return to civil rule in 1999, after Obasanjo, it was Alhaji Umaru Yar Adua and then Goodluck Jonathan. After Jonathan, Buhari came.”

The businessman, who hails from Igbere in Abia, the hometown of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, added that “it will be an injustice to take it back to the South-West.”

Kalu Ogbonnaya also criticised the Federal Government over the South-East rail project.

He stated that the government has not been fair to the region in terms of projects.

“How can we secure a loan for a rail project and then exclude the South-East? When the time to repay comes, all of us are going to pay. I don’t support the idea of dividing the country, but I don’t like the way we are being treated.”